Bobby Stokes

Football player infobox
playername= Bobby Stokes


fullname = Robert William Thomas Stokes
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date|1951|1|30
cityofbirth = Portsmouth
countryofbirth = England
dateofdeath = death date and age|1995|5|30|1951|1|30
cityofdeath = Portsmouth
countryofdeath = England
height = height|ft=5|in=7
currentclub =
position = Forward
youthyears = 1967-1968
youthclubs = Southampton
years = 1968-1977
1977-1978
1978-1980
clubs = Southampton
Portsmouth
Washington Diplomats
caps(goals) = 216 (40)
024 0(2)
098 (17)
nationalyears = pre-1972
nationalteam = England
nationalcaps(goals) = Youth level only
pcupdate =
ntupdate =

Bobby Stokes (January 30, 1951 - May 30, 1995) was an English footballer.

Bobby Stokes is well known for scoring the winning goal in the 83rd minute of the FA Cup Final for Southampton F.C. against Manchester United in 1976.

Portsmouth

Bobby Stokes was born in Portsmouth on 30 January 1951. It is ironic that he was born in the city whose team rivals Southampton, the one he was most famous for playing for, although he did go on to play for Portsmouth at the end of his career. A talented player from a young age, Bobby Stokes quickly became a target for a number of clubs and looked likely to sign for Portsmouth. However, due to the failings of the club's youth system, Bobby Stokes slipped through.

outhampton

But he did not have to wait long for his next chance to go professional and signed for the Saints in September 1966 as an apprentice, turning professional in February 1968. Like most youngsters, he struggled to get into the first team as a young player but during the 1968-69 season, he was given his chance, making his debut on April 7 1969 against Burnley and managing to score as well.

Prolonged success with the club

From then on, his presence in the team, though not assured, was constant. He scored his first goals for the club in those late sixties years, and fully broke in the 1969-70 season, playing 19 times. However his fortunes did not go too well, only scoring two goals in that time. The next season (1970-71) he was ravaged by injury and poor form and only played one solitary game. In the way that football careers can sometimes go, this could have been the slope down for Stokes in only his first few years as a pro. However, he proved himself come 1971-72, playing 41 times and scoring 7 times. He continued to impress in the next few years, despite suffering relegation in 1974 with the team. Then came the immortal year of 1976.

1976: the Cup Final year

Bobby Stokes had an average league campaign, putting in 8 goals. However, the season would be remembered for Saints reaching the FA Cup Final. After beating Aston Villa F.C. in the third round, Stokes scored against Blackpool F.C. in the fourth round in a 3-1 victory. In the fifth round, Saints were drawn against West Bromwich Albion and were forced to put out a significantly weakened team because of a stomach virus which affected many of the first team. Bobby Stokes was not one of the ill however, and he scored a late equaliser in the game to draw it 1-1. As is the nature of a sport like football, fortunes can turn on such an incident. Saints subsequently won the replay and it is perhaps a moment like that which propelled them to the final. As Saints got closer, the tension rose and their place was sealed with a semi-final defeat of Crystal Palace F.C.

Expectations at the time were that Saints would be soundly beaten by a Football League First Division Manchester United F.C. side on the up. But Bobby Stokes did not listen to the doubters, scoring the only goal of the game, racing onto a Jim McCalliog pass and placing his shot accurately into the extreme corner of the net past Alex Stepney in the United goal. Initial thoughts were that he was offside but replays show that it was his sheer speed that took him past Martin Buchan to create the chance. His name was forever written into Southampton folklore, and it remains Saints' highest success as a club. He won a new car for scoring the first goal in the cup final; he had apparently started taking driving lessons prior to the final, fully expecting to win the vehicle.

Post-1976

Things would never return to the summer Wembley high for Stokes, as 1976-77, his final season with Southampton, was average at best, managing only 11 appearances and 1 goal. He left Saints not so much with a whimper, but downbeat, with the club still in the Football League Second Division. The shock was where he went next - to Southampton F.C.'s bitter rivals, Portsmouth F.C. But he was never allowed to live down his associations with the Saints and was often unfairly criticised and abused by the supporters. Just one year after joining them, he left Portsmouth F.C..

He went on to play for Cheltenham Town F.C. in England and move over to the U.S.A. to play for the Washington Diplomats, with his teammate in the 1976 final, Jim Steele.

After football

Bobby Stokes took an active interest in horse racing after his career in football had ended, and remained a popular and well respected figure, at least in the red half of Hampshire. Bobby worked in a take-away cafe on the Harbour in Portsmouth. He was tolerated at best by those from his native city, although ,as said, many despised him for his part in the only thing the 'enemy' ever won. He died in 1995, after contracting pneumonia during a round of golf, aged 44. He left behind a football career in which he was a hard-working professional, who did everything right at his moment of glory.

Bobby died on the same day as another football legend who started his professional career at Southampton, Ted Drake, on May 30, 1995.

He has been honoured by having one of the luxurious hospitality suites at the St Mary's Stadium named after him, as has one of the buildings that now occupy the site of the former Dell: Stokes Court.

Honours

As a player

With Southampton F.C.

* FA Cup winner 1976

References

*cite book
author=Jeremy Wilson
title=Southampton’s Cult Heroes
publisher=Know The Score Books
year=2006
id=ISBN 1-905449-01-1

*cite book
author=Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk
title=In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC
publisher=Hagiology
year=2003
id=ISBN 0-9534474-3-X

*cite book
author=Tim Manns
title=Tie a Yellow Ribbon: How the Saints Won the Cup
publisher=Hagiology
year=2006
id=ISBN 0-9534474-6-4